Our Diamonds

Diamonds are the most beautiful and ancient creations from Nature. These precious treasures have intrigued and delighted for generations. It is with this reverence and our mastery that we conduct the individual hand-selection of each of our diamonds.

The Jeweller of Light

The light is the soul of the diamond.

As the Jeweller of Light, we create timeless treasures that reveal and celebrate the wondrous brilliance of diamonds and of women. Our creations are conceived to reveal the brilliance of the diamond, its luminous secrets and infinite depths. By focussing on the diamond’s natural beauty and brilliance, we bring light and femininity to each of our jewellery designs. This eye for exceptional artistry combined with our unique diamond mastery developed since 1888, is the De Beers Difference.

Individually selected for beauty

In choosing a creation of De Beers Diamond Jewellery, you are selecting an exceptional diamond that has been individually selected for its inimitable beauty by a De Beers expert.

De Beers Institute of Diamonds

The De Beers Institute of Diamonds was established in London in 2001 by Andrew Coxon, its President, whose expertise in diamonds was gained over more than 40 years with the De Beers Group and De Beers Diamond Jewellers. The specialists at the De Beers Institute of Diamonds consider the perfection of the diamond’s cut, proportions and natural beauty by eye, taking the selection process far beyond the conventional assessments of other jewellers. The Institute has observed through years of experience that whilst two diamonds may have the same diamond grading report, they often look very different to the eye; De Beers understands why this occurs and we use our diamond knowledge to only select the ones that we know will be recognised as the most beautiful. When visiting a De Beers store you can focus on seeking your unique diamond that you instantly fall in love with; the one that captivates you from first glance, knowing the exceptional level of expertise and attention that went into individually selecting it for its beauty.

The Fire, Life & Brilliance

The secret to our expert and individual selection is The Fire, the Life and the Brilliance of our diamonds – the true assessment of a diamond’s natural beauty and light performance.

The Fire of the diamond is the dispersion of light in the myriad of the diamond facets; it is the intense rainbow of colours it projects in a moment of light. The Life is the sparkle of the diamond – the scintillation and bursts of light that enchant with every movement of the hand. The Brilliance begins with the natural transparency of the diamond. It leads to the brightness of the diamond that captures the light and reflects it back to your eye. The Fire, the Life and the Brilliance of our diamonds are immediately visible to your eye but it is with our unique in-store diamond demonstrator called the Iris that you will be able to see the beauty of your diamond for yourself. De Beers is the only brand that will demonstrate to you the result of the individual selection of each diamond for the Fire, the Life and the Brilliance. Seeing is believing.

OUR IN-STORE DIAMOND DEMONSTRATOR: THE IRIS

Although we understand the importance of laboratory reports for diamond grading based upon the 4 C’s , we are delighted to be able to demonstrate the true beauty of your chosen diamond with the Iris. Each De Beers store is equipped with this unique diamond demonstrator which allows you to be the expert and see for yourself why your diamond was selected and individually numbered by The De Beers Institute of Diamonds. Through the Iris you can examine the beauty of your diamond through the illumination of each set of its facets. Every round brilliant diamond has eight sets of facets which will light up in turn when the Iris light shines on them if they are perfectly aligned . This is the ultimate test which most other diamonds will fail , even with triple Excellent diamond laboratory reports for Cut , Polish and Symmetry. Even Hearts and Arrows cuts only represent two of the eight sets of facets in a round brilliant but they alone are not enough for your complete peace of mind . You will discover at De Beers that when all eight sets of facets are polished to sublime symmetry® , your diamond will sparkle from every side and every angle all of the time, regardless of colour and quality. The best diamond is the one which sparkles the most . To demonstrate the importance of selecting our diamonds for beauty and ensuring the alignment of all 8 sets of facets, we can also show you a diamond on the Iris that whilst it passes the usual 4C’s criteria of other jewellers would not be selected by De Beers due to it’s lack of beauty and symmetry.

Two diamonds with the same grading report and identical 4C’s (carat, cut, clarity and colour) can differ greatly in beauty. Of course we understand the importance of certification and every De Beers diamond above 0.2 carat comes with a Diamond Grading report with the 4Cs.

The 4 C's

In 1939, The De Beers Group of Companies recognised the importance to verify diamonds and bring an understanding to their unique traits. With this, the 4Cs were introduced each of the 4C’s describes a diamonds specific characteristics – Carat, Colour, Clarity and Cut were named as the industry measures. It is a balance of all four of these characteristics that denote the diamond’s value and rarity.

Carat is the weight of the diamond and the metric that denotes its size.

Colour is the hue of the diamond or the lack thereof. Scaling from D-Z, the colour band of diamonds move alphabetically from colourless through to an increasing presence of colour.

Clarity is a judgment of the internal presence of inclusions and the external visibility of blemishes. The regularity, size, nature, and position of these characteristics is considered and graded on a scale of F (Flawless) to I3, however De Beers does not offer any D-Z coloured diamonds lower than SI2 (Slightly Included 2).

Cut is the appraisal of the diamond’s facets and the ability of these to transmit light and sparkle. The Cut scale moves from Excellent to Poor, though De Beers does not accept any diamonds below a Very Good rating.